


Living On

by Closeted_Bookworm



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Bittersweet, Death Scene, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Sad Ending, The end is in literally 3 days people I am not okay, Unus Annus, Way too many of my fics have that tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:49:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27504097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Closeted_Bookworm/pseuds/Closeted_Bookworm
Summary: A year is not so very long to live. They accepted this fact quite some time ago.That wasn't making this hurt any less.
Relationships: Mark Fischbach & Ethan Nestor, Unus & Annus
Comments: 8
Kudos: 42





	Living On

**Author's Note:**

> I HAVE WORK DURING THE LIVESTREAM URGHHHHH-
> 
> ANyways, enjoy this. Or cry. I did both. <3

Annus paced back and forth in front of the hourglass, desperately running through memories. Unus was slumped at the base, eyes closed and oblivious to his surroundings. Most of his energy was gone already. He’d used the majority of it filming the final two weeks of videos. 

Annus could feel his own power waning, the cold, dead exhaustion weighing him down. The time they’d spent in the real world had been the best possible way to spend the days they had left, but it left them drained and weak. Unus could barely move. Ethan had fought much harder against the entity’s control, and Unus’s chaotic, unfocused aura had a harder time corralling his real-world counterpart than Annus did with Mark. He had been lucky to get his friend back here before he collapsed and scattered early. 

There was only about an hour’s worth of sand left in the top half of the hourglass. Annus was determined to go over all his favorite moments one last time, picturing them perfectly in his mind’s eye. 

They’d lived a good life. It had been weird and spontaneous and he’d been close to nude a few more times than he cared to think about, but he wouldn’t swap it out for anything. 

He wouldn’t even trade it for more time, he realized. What good would more time be if they had to spend it all trapped here, stuck in an exit-less room with the cursed hourglass constantly reminding them how temporary they were?

“Annus,” Unus called softly. He whirled around, at his friend’s side in an instant. In spite of himself, tears poked at the back of his eyeballs. 

“I was afraid you wouldn’t wake up in time,” he murmured, wrapping his partner in a hug.

“And leave without saying goodbye? Fat chance,” Unus chuckled. “How much time is left?”

He looked up and examined the sand left. 

“About fifteen minutes.”

A sad light entered his friend’s eyes. “I wasted our last moments together.”

“Please don’t feel guilty about it. We can’t rewind. Let’s just enjoy the time we have left.”

Unus smiled, pushing himself into a more upright position and leaning his head back against the curved glass. “I dreamed about us, you know.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It was like watching a movie of all the best moments we spent together. You look a lot scruffier now than you used to.”

Annus grinned in return. “A lot can happen in a year. You’re lucky Ethan decided to lose that mustache.”

“I’d rather have the mustache than the egg-head phase.”

“But it was for charity!”

“Doesn’t mean I had to enjoy it.”

The two sat back in contented silence, thinking through the things they’d done. The only sound was the gentle trickle of the sand running down the sides of the mound of sediment behind them. 

“Do you think we’ll ever come back?” Unus said suddenly. 

Annus contemplated for a moment. “No,” he decided. “I don’t think so. We were created for death, to remind people that all things must come to an end. What would be our purpose if we returned year after year?”

“That is true,” Unus agreed. “Still, sitting here and waiting for it all to collapse, I almost wish it wasn’t. I’m going to miss you, Annus.”

“I’m going to miss you too. We had a good run, didn’t we?”

“Yeah.”

A low rumble started behind them. They looked back to see the pile of golden sand trembling and shaking. The floor of the hourglass was rippling like waves in the sea, swirling with dazzling patterns of black and white. As they watched, it started spinning itself into the spiral they knew so well. There were only a few minutes remaining.

Annus could sense the pull from the spiral, dragging his life force out of him in a long string. Unus’s face had gone even paler beside him. His friend turned to him with a panicked glint in his eye, grabbing his arm. 

“I’m not back up to full strength,” he said breathlessly. “I can feel it taking me. I’m not going to make it to the last grains of sand.”

The tears were back. “No, we’re leaving together,” he declared, hauling the both of them to their feet. “We promised each other we were leaving together.”

Unus’s skin looked thin, the barest hint of bones visible through the more translucent bits. Annus could feel his partner leaning heavily on him for support, but he kept him stubbornly upright. 

“It’s no use. I used too much power keeping us there for one last day,” Unus mumbled. “I’ve got no reserves left.”

“You’re not leaving me,” Annus insisted.

“Set me down,” his friend instructed. 

He lowered the two of them to the ground. Unus sagged against his chest, growing more ghost-like by the second. His skeleton was plainly visible. Annus could see the same condition creeping up his own extremities, the void’s call intensifying with every moment that passed. The clock was ticking loudly in his ears.

He cradled his dearest friend in his arms, every second tearing through his heart. With every instant that flew by, the man in his arms grew frailer.

“I’m going now, Annus,” Unus said almost inaudibly. 

“No, please,” he implored, the tears flowing freely down his cheeks. “Just wait a little longer with me.”

“I love you. I wouldn’t have wanted this year with anyone else.”

“I love you too, Unus.”

The faintest of grins graced his friend’s transparent cheeks. “One last time?”

He forced a smile through the pain. “Of course.”

“Unus,” his friend began.

“Annus,” he finished. “Memento Mori.”

“Goodbye, friend.”

He was gone. He faded to nothing except bones, which shattered like delicate glass. The fragments were caught up in a breeze that he couldn’t feel, only see, as the brightest thing in his life was whisked away into nothingness. 

He got to his feet with his last dregs of strength, vision blurred from crying. His energy was almost gone. The amount of sand left to fall was small enough that he could cup it in his hands. 

“Remember that all things die,” he proclaimed to the emptiness. He could feel himself going. “But perhaps the lost still live in memories. I hope they never forget what we gave them.” 

The last grain of sand fell. It hung suspended in the air for the briefest of moments, catching the light like a tiny diamond. But it still fell.

**Author's Note:**

> I am not going to be okay for a little/long while after Friday. I'm going to miss these videos and the daily content these two make together so much. 
> 
> I've got a question for you guys. I have a few fics on here with Unus Annus mentioned, and I don't want to take them down completely. What I was considering doing is going through and censoring the channel name from everything. Should I do that, or just leave them the way they are as my personal monument to the channel?


End file.
